Main Menu

Search

The hard part is capturing interest. The hardest part is keeping that interest alive through
your posts so make every post have meaning and importance.

1. Interacting With People!

People love to interact with your website so give them the opportunity to do so.

Brighten up the overall feel of your website with images and a color scheme to match your them and the impression you're aiming for. From experience, lighter themes seem to succeed better than darker ones. If your overall theme's dark them perhaps consider livening it up with some exotic features to captivate the viewer and make it seem less-dull?

You want to give the appearance that your website is adaptive and inviting to visitors. And you won't get that with a simple layout and some text.

It needs to be rich and swimming in dynamic content like message boards, comment sections, polls, Flash/Java applications, contests, multimedia items or any other kind of interactive media that has a useful purpose.

2. Keep Generating Content

There's nothing worse than visiting a blog that looks and feels vibrant and just when you're ready to follow and support the website you notice that the most recent post was dated 15th March 2007. Keep it active and keep generating interesting content!

It doesn't matter if it's simply a paragraph describing the awkward situation when you got a raccoon stuck in your rectum. Make sure you're updating regularly to show that you're committed.

Don't post old news. Keep as up-to-date as you possibly can.

Make sure that the subject is interesting! Nobody want's to hear about your kid's foot. But they might if he has a rare foot disease where it swells up to an enormous size and starts playing the harmonica.

Length doesn't matter but more in-depth postings give visitors more to read especially if they are interested in the subject matter.

A little effort goes a long way, instead of spending five minutes rushing to hot-link a YouTube video why not spend an extra couple of minutes explaining why you like this particular video.

3. Spread The Word

Become a contributing member of the wide-world of blogging and webmastering. Keep actively participating and interacting with other websites and blogs that interest you. That way visitors with similar interests to that website will come and check you out! Utilize various search engines to maximize your traffic flow and get noticed. Facebook/Twitter/YouTube/LinkedIn/Plaxo Feeds are also vastly deep pools of traffic that you can dip your website into. There are simply no limits to the amount of advertising you can do to promote your website/blog and all it takes is a little dedication to stick to your guns and keep at it.

There's always a lot of discussion about whether a domain name makes your website/blog look more professional and appealing to new visitors. The truth is a domain name is beneficial because it is easy to remember and so people are more likely to frequent your website. It shows that you've put time and effort into the website to make it as accessible as you can which is always appreciated.

If you're genuinely considering whether or not to buy a domain name then think to yourself is it important for your website to have one. There are always the initial benefits of having a domain for things like web search optimization but you have to decide whether it will be worth the purchase in a few months time. Always think to what something it will be like in the future when implementing something new. The golden rule being don't add something pointless that doesn't benefit you simply because you like the way it looks. Everything should be for a functioning purpose even the domain name.

To get started...

There are reliable domain names available which give you a good service for a slightly higher cost. You need to decide how much money you're willing to spend on the website in order for you still to make a return. Don't add some excessive new features/domains unless you plan on earning the money back with consistent traffic. Record the average amount of visitors you gain over a week and then decide if a domain name would be an affordable and good idea.

Always remember don't just buy the first domain name you see! Be constantly looking around for better deals and you can actually get some domains free with cheap web hosting deals.

I've listed a mixture of cheap and quality domain name providers to get you started.

Free domains make you have no commitment and you can easily dispose of them when not needed. Helps to give your website a URL that is easy to remember without having to splash out cash especially if you're unsure whether the website is going to prevail in the long run or not.

FreeDomain.co.nr- Classy free domain name and all they require is an affiliate button on your website/blog.

TinyURL - Not for domain use primarily but to shorten long excessive links.

5. Useful Aids And Features

Google Site Search Lets you add a unique search engine to your website/blog so visitors can easily navigate through your articles to find what they're looking for.

Google Analytics records traffic sources and what they clicked on while on your page. So you can see which things were most popular and gathered most attention.

BrowserShots See what your website/blog looks like from all the other browsers.

Be related! If you're blog is about music then always share your favorite tracks
and give recommendations based on the type of music you discuss.

6. Conclusion And Last Words

At the end of the day it's your duty to keep the content on your website fresh and exciting. Post new content such as images, videos, helpful information or recommendations on a regular basis depending on what your website is build to present. The more effort you put in will result in the more you receive back in terms of visitors. When you have an active website there's also plenty of things you can do to increase either revenue or simply build on your community. You can open up additional features such as a shop, marketplace to sell goods relating to your site for example. The possibilities really are endless.

------------------------------------------------------------------

I just wanted to say thanks to the enormous amount of support for this blog I've been receiving. So much so that I've been trying to visit the fellow blogs of everyone who's posted but there are simply so many it's going to take ages!

If anyone has suggestions on what to write for future articles then I'm all ears and they are greatly appreciated.